Prospect Highlights: Your Daily Alen Hanson Highlight

With Indianapolis on the road, the highlights posted from them have been few and far between, so we have been relying on Altoona to keep us entertained and Alen Hanson has been doing a good job of it lately. Here he hits a two-run single from yesterday’s game, part of another multi-hit game that has become commonplace for him recently. He is hitting .308 in his last ten games and there is one interesting set of stats to note. I mentioned the other day that he needed to cut down his strikeouts and draw a few more walks. In his last six games, he has two walks and one strikeout.

The only other highlight posted was a defensive gem from Drew Maggi worth checking out. Speaking of Maggi, what has got into him lately? Here is a brief summary of his career:

2010: Signed to an overslot deal as a draft-eligible sophomore
2011: Look solid in his first full season at WV. I saw him play numerous times and he handled the bat well, looked good in the field, good speed, all-around good player.
2012: After a half season at Bradenton, he became an organizational filler
2013: See second half of 2012
2014: Hitting .340 with nine stolen bases and an .891 OPS. Can play almost anywhere in the field including this pick at third base, but still can’t get his name in the title for this post. What else is there to notice about this play? The range from Alen Hanson backing up Maggi and the stretch from Stetson Allie at first base.

John was born in Kearny, NJ, hometown of the 2B for the Pirates 1909 World Championship team, Dots Miller. In fact they have some of the same relatives in common, so it was only natural for him to become a lifelong Pirates fan. Before joining Pirates Prospects in July 2010, John had written numerous articles on the history of baseball while also releasing his own book and co-authoring another on the history of the game. He writes a weekly article on Pirates history for the site, has already interviewed many of the current minor leaguers with many more on the way and follows the foreign minor league teams very closely for the site. John also provides in person game reports of the West Virginia Power and Altoona Curve.